You all make me wonder if you are Black Americans because your alls o damned disrespectful toward your black elders!!!! 30 years ago your faces would have gotten the sh*t slapped out of them for being so disrespectful. This is the same lady who fought not only for Black rights but also womens rights. She sang for Dr. King 7 many more. Just try to pretend you have respect even if your mother did not teach you how to be respectful Its really sad to see how many of you speak about your elders as if you paved the way to do anything but eat and make merry.sad

Anonymous said... You all make me wonder if you are Black Americans because your alls o damned disrespectful toward your black elders!!!! 30 years ago your faces would have gotten the sh*t slapped out of them for being so disrespectful. This is the same lady who fought not only for Black rights but also womens rights. She sang for Dr. King 7 many more. Just try to pretend you have respect even if your mother did not teach you how to be respectful Its really sad to see how many of you speak about your elders as if you paved the way to do anything but eat and make merry.sad

10:24 AM

Puhleeze. Respect is earned not given. What does marching have to do with that dress? What does it have to do with her not paying the very same people who marched and worked to support their families. Why does she get a pass (Like R-uh) because she makes good music? If she is due respect why doesn't someone have the balls to tell her to give up the spaghetti straps and not show her slabs? Celebs need to be held accountable too.

I agree with you cutie pie and I think she has more than EARNED her r-e-s-p-e-c-t a thousand times over. I have seen her in some questionable wigs and outfits, but that's part of her charm. Auntie ReRe don't give a fluk. She's big and loud and them tata's are out there and proud.

damn all your your grandmothers must be skinny, cuz your comments show your insecurity. Black women tear each other down to feel good about their ugly ass lives, attitudes. sometimes I wonder if this is the KKK site because the comments are similar

Bet she ate every last pearl drop on that cake. For a woman that commands that much RESPECT she should dress herself better when she leaves the house everything just spilling all over the place is not a respectable look for a woman that age or size. So glad she wore that hat, if not that cake would been the shape of a roasted pig.

the thing about weight is that we all know it is a health issue...yet BW tend to use the cop outs of: "im thick," "im just big-boned," "i dont get any complaints." being fat is unhealthy, sorry to put it so harshly. and yes, i have a big grandmother, big aunties, whatever, but that is my motivation to stay in the gym 4 days a week. it is not all about looks, or tearing someone down, but if push came to shove and u r that huge, would u be able to hide from a robber, or run from a dog, or simply climb a flight of stairs by yourself.

some folks wanna sugar coat obesity/fat...why? fat clogs ur arteries. fat causes u to haveta take lots of pills. fat folks take up way more than their alloted space on a plane or train. so if u wanna sugar coat being unhealthy and never wanting to change anything, feel free. but i will choose to work out and try and avoid fat ppl on an airplane.

obviously this has nothing to do with ms franklin, but she and BW like my grandma do need to lose alot of weight. being truthful, is not being disrespectful. truth does hurt sometimes tho.

Aretha may be genetically overweight. Some people can't help that. Sometimes its genetics and sometimes its lifestyle choice.

Its interesting how people say black women weigh more than women of other races...i think its a huge generalization, because in all my 25 years of living, i have seen some skinny ass black women from around the world...and I've seen thicker Africans than thicker African-Americans, and Africans are skinny too. I think its a big stereotype and generalization.

i think Americans overall have health issues-skinny or fat, because of all the crap that the f.d.a approves to clog the colon with...i think its better to go organic and natural when selecting foods, 'cause theres things in foods that keep people from losing weight and keeps people going to the pharmacy, for example: MSG (MonoSodium Glutamate) and High Fructose Corn Syrup-among other things--this is not just in some U.S. Chinese food restaurants or other fast food places, its at the grocery store on the back of popular food boxes and jars....

i'm just glad aretha is still alive, 'cause everybody doesn't make it to 67 especially in the entertainment business.

fyi aretha louise franklin is a strong black woman she has overcome INCEST, ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIPS WITH ONE OF THE NUCCAS MOLESTING HER SON, MIND YOU AND ALL TYPES OF DRAMA FROM BEING IN THE MUSIC BIDNESS...now, if home girl wanna wear spaghetti straps and eat til her swole up ankles match the rest of her body, i ain't mad at her...she wrote DAYDREAMING damn it!leave her alone...can food be her firend?????? sheesh

EXACTLY! I mean damn I see we just pick on ANY damn thing but WTF has she done to get talked bad about?

Aretha is gotamn me 67 years old and its HER party and she will cry/dress how she pleases! is she showing her tits all out in a nasty way? hell naw she just chillin wit her people doing HER.

I'm sure someone told her to lose weight or to wear a more 'appropriate' dress, but when you have SELF CONFIDENCE and don't constantly seek others for their approval, you tend to ignore what a MF say and do what's comfortable for YOU.

Boy I tell you insecurity is a bitch! I'm all down for clowin someone who acting an ass or whatever but this here is just *smh* some of you need to work on yourselves since you always have a negative comment about somebody who just minding their OWN bidness.

V. Loren said... Aretha may be genetically overweight. Some people can't help that. Sometimes its genetics and sometimes its lifestyle choice.

Y'all don't know Miss Franklin, like I know Miss Franklin. Everything you see is not reality. Now before I get "haterized" I will say, I do like her music. I can groove to anything she sings or snore. Backstage, there is a buffet. I mean a TRUE buffet. She has a spread and go for hers. This is not genetics. She has played the weight game for many years, no doubt related to her upbringing and lifestyle.

@5:08. First u said its genetics and then you explained she's greedy. Which one is it? Does she really binge?If she was really ready to lose weight (and I doubt she is), she should get stomach bypass surgery. That would reduce her stomach to the size a egg 9not jumbo either), then she couldn't swallow up the whole damn buffet table. Simple as that.But I agree- some black women don't care about being fat and nasty. At least most of the white ones feel some kind of guilt and shame. Gluttony is a sin.

@anon 500...get it right. i dont hate mothers. i dont like ignorant babies mamas who are leeches on society. and i dont hate fat ppl, that would be silly since most of my fam is overweight. i just think that MOST ppl can control there weight thru exercise and proper food intake.

now to u calling me ugly, that's fine ill take that. maybe i am not ur type. but u seem to be an inarticulate, bitter bitch that has anger issues. u r the type that will end up all alone with just ur computer to keep u warm...well maybe tyrone will come his his typical booty call.

You know, Burt Bacharach has probably written more Top 10 songs then just about anybody alive—most of them famously recorded by Dionne Warwick in the 60s and 70s.

*leans back in porch rocker to begin a long story*

But I just read an interview with him a few weeks ago and he said of all his hits, and the hundreds of songs he has written, the one which has remained his favorite by far is "Say A Little Prayer," as sung by Aretha Franklin.

And I smiled when I read that because back in the day (but long after that song had been a hit), a friend and I "rediscovered" it—and we played it continuously all the way from LA to San Diego one night. Over and over again.

Listen to her sing that song and you'll know what I mean. She is LIVING that song and singing it at the same time.

Long after she's gone, her work will still be here for all of us lesser-talented mortals to enjoy.

blah.. to each his/her own...i dont care about being called a hater. Aretha is not slightly overweight ... or borderline overweight.. She is obviously unhealthy. I would like to see one doctor who would say she is healthy. If you care about your health, you take better care of yourself .. the end. I have seen very healthy women in size 16... even 18-20... Their weight fit their height or they worked out to build the muscle for whatever reasons. Aretha is simply overweight and unhealthy and it is my opinion that she doesnt give a fuck. ... and I really dont care. Its not my life.

and for all we know she probably had a shawl and just took it off for a sec. obsiety is not cool but its harder for some than for others to lose the weight especially if you have a health condition other than being obese.

"You all make me wonder if you are Black Americans because your all so damn disrespectful toward your black elders!!!! 30 years ago your faces would have gotten the sh*t slapped out of them for being so disrespectful. This is the same lady who fought not only for Black rights but also womens rights. She sang for Dr. King 7 many more. Just try to pretend you have respect even if your mother did not teach you how to be respectful Its really sad to see how many of you speak about your elders as if you paved the way to do anything but eat and make merry.sad"

@ 10:24Need I say more, you said it all.

I'll just say, the youth have been dumbed down to nothing. Remember those that don't know their history will be forced to relive it. Growing up history was spoon fed and sometimes shoved down our throats, but I got it and I give it back freely.

@Houston Girl you kilt it today. I think your comments were very well put. Aretha is a singer. Not an actress, dancer, or a model. She sings better than most people alive or dead. Evaluate her on your opinion of her musical talent. It's not like she came up in here flashing her kitty or with her dress slit to her navel like Don Cornelius trophy wife. She didn't sit with her legs cocked open like Bey or Ciara, so I don't know how y'all can call her nasty. She is probably a great or great-great grandmother. She has seen more than many of us put together. She is way too old to be approved for bariatric surgery and certainly too old for most aerobics. That surgery makes a lot of people look strange anyway(See Al Roker, Star Jones, and Carnie Wilson) and it often doesn't work. She's elderly. At this point she's entitled. I honestly think a lot of people hide behind "health" talk just so they can put other women down. I doubt anyone on here is her nurse, her child, or her health insurance plan manager.

Dear MS Aretha, I hope you realize that you are and will always be the Queen of Soul!! You have so many righteous beautiful songs that they bring tears to my eyes when I listen to them!! I hope you have a wonderful birthday with your family, your man and guests. You were beautiful at the Inauguration and I love the hat, wishing you many more birthdays and beautiful songs and memories. Peace and Love!

@miss KDear MS Aretha, I hope you realize that you are and will always be the Queen of Soul!! You have so many righteous beautiful songs that they bring tears to my eyes when I listen to them!! I hope you have a wonderful birthday with your family, your man and guests. You were beautiful at the Inauguration and I love the hat, wishing you many more birthdays and beautiful songs and memories. Peace and Love!

Niggas think they know every gotdamn thang. V Loren spit it best. You'ont know what da fuck a person's reason is for bein' who, what, and how they are, bottom line. I do part time work down at da Y as a personal trainer and please believe a nigga, I meet people everyday dat are overweight and underweight for a whole lotta reasons than simply what they choose to eat. Da shit just isn't dat simple for everybody. Sure, our culture is one of endulgence, but man there's all kinda shit out there afflictin' people. I have a good buddy at da Y who had one of his cranial nerves severed during a routine wisdom tooth extraction. They fucked him up. For 2 years, this nigga has a headache to some degree ALL the time. If he runs, moves too quick, gets stressed, gets too happy, gets intimate with wifey, cries, da pain kills him unless he's on shit dat keeps a nigga nearly vegetized. So even though m'man eats what we consider "right" most of da time, it's a wrap fa him because he comes from a big family and da only way he can effectively lose weight is by doin immoble shit like sittin' in a sauna. Then you talk about the depression of havin' to live dat way. People go through all kinds of shit and when they get real obese, you can best believe there's somethin' in their mentality dat needs to be remedied before they'll be able to attack da issue.

Some o' you niggas have zero perspective cuz ya ass aint neva seen or been through shit. Obesity aint all plus and minus signs. A lotta people out there are dealin' with fuckin geometry and some mo' shit dat can't be completely fixed with a daily aerobic class.

My Grandmother is what you would consider obese. She's 91 now and has buried 5 of her 8 children, none of who were even overweight. She be eatin' bacon like "nigga what?"

@BG...i know that thre r some medical reasons for some and could be geometry. but for most it is as simple as arithmetic. folks eat too much greasy food and fast food and are not getting enough exercise. that is most folks. and what is sad is that adults are teaching their kids the exact same way. so when u try and excuse the MAJORITY, for what a FEW have gone thru...it gives ppl a cop out. yea some folks are happy in their skin. but really how u gone really be happy if u can't walk more than a few steps without getting winded.

9:21 - I aint here to be anything but anotha comment in the blog, baby. Sorry "nigga" is ruinin' ya perception of me, but I'm just me.

Nyla - I'm not a musclebound cat, baby. I just run a lot and try to keep lookin' good fa me, baby. The people I help are mostly elderly and disabled, so anybody any size could do what I do, which is to help people gain and improve their range of motion just to get through everyday life. Lil runnin' light weights and floor exercise. My comments were definitely not aimed at you. It's a natural thought to see how big Retha has gotten, see dat big ass cake, and be like "whoa".

quesha - you miss me, momma. I'm definitely not tryna excuse the majority. But just look at da flow in da blog and you can tell dat people more or less see weight issues plus/minus signs, when for a lot of people out there, binary code and other things dat are more set in stone and hard to change are at play. Dat's all I was sayin. Like I said before, our culture is one of overendulgence, I'ont deny dat for a second. But it's not dat cut n' dry for a lot of people. I feel u.

I don't know about genetics or all this obesity talk. 'Retha is obese for whatever reason, but damn she 67. At that age who gives a fuck? I say fuck it 'retha, have your cake and eat it too, you don't have many years left anyway.

I don't know about her genetics, but I do know she and her limo are no strangers to the Detroit-area KFC drive-thrus.

And I've always wondered whether she is trying to eat her way out of deep unhappiness, 'cause she def. has not been lucky in love.

Back in the day she was once married to Glynn Thurman, an actor you may remember as the ROTC commander from the latter part of the "A Different World" run.

Anyway, when their marriage busted up years ago, the word on the street—which I am now spraying on the bathroom wall LOL—was that Aretha had walked-in on Glynn and one of her (then) teen-aged sons (by another man) and asses were in the air.

10:28, I got your b*itch hanging punk & when you done hiding behind screens and talking sh*t your wet behind the ears @sss can't back up then get at me but until then I strongly suggest you shut the hell up before I pimp you like your daddy does your unwed mammy

Miss Franklin has always suffered from thinking what looks likes a hot mess on her body build looks good. I think she gets a rise of tha shock value of a plus-sized woman wearing spaghetti straps, white, feathers, furs, super low-cut gowns and hideously long trains as well as some of the most gawd awful wigs you could ever wanna see. There are a lot inner things that has caused Aretha to balloon in weight and use food as a crutch. Sifting through the facts versus the folklore has been the fodder for many a journalists. Try mother leaving family at 6 years of age, raised by a womanizing/pot smoking.chain-smoking preacher man dad; mom dies when she was 10 years of age; father didn't even go to wife's funeral; getting pregnant at 14 and again at 16; started smoking cigs at 14; dropped out of high school during 10th grade; travelled all over on gospel caravans in her early teens; multiple sex partners at a young age; rumours of incest and abuse; abusive marraiages and common-law husbands; four sons by four different men; catapulted into international in 1967 in an unprecedented way - with no advance preparation; coddled by her father and brother - to the point where she only will do what she wants, when she wants and is uncompromising; as lost all of her siblings except for one of whom she has never really had a relatioship with; one son in a mental institution, another on medication for allegedly having gotten a hold of some bad drugs at one time - he even was suspected in setting her mansion on fire in suburban Detroit; two failed marriages - one very abusive, the other to actor Glynn Turman acccording to reliable sources involved him being caught in bed with a family member of Miss Franklin's (hint - mental institution person); fame; fortune; mistrust; arrogant; egomaniac; insecure; protagonist; genius; can be benevolent or downright blunt - all of it rolled into one makes for a very complicated woman, and all of it has probably led to some of the best damn soul music that has ever been sung on the planet earth for four plus decades..she will never tell all of it, and she doesn't have to - a read of her book FROM THESE ROOTS give one insight into how bitter, self-driven and guarded she is - but...

it will and shall be her way, or no way - you gotta love her, even when you hate what she wears or does

One thing i haven't seen mentioned here, that is VERY important. Yes, Ms. Aretha Franklin is one of the finest musicians our great nation has "produced", and that alone is worthy of our RESPECT.

But, she was also instrumental in the civil rights movement in our great nation. She was born in 1940. When she was young, she did not have rights. She fought for black people, women, all people to have rights.

She fought by singing. She fought by giving money to the cause [usually anon]. She fought by being uncompromising [that very thing we tend to criticize her for]. She fought by being herself, which is more than most of us can claim.

And now, at age 67, she can look around and say. "Yes, Lord, we still have a ways to go. But look how far we have come!"

People who have forgotten ????, or who may be too young to have lived through what she has seen with her own eyes, and felt with her own flesh and soul, and endured through her own strength and spirit, need to step back and think about this.

I don't dismiss the health risks associated with her weight. But I admonish us all to treat this LADY with respect. She does deserve it.

Can she outrageous? Oh yes! And Aretha - I hope you have many more years of being WHO you are and making all of our lives richer, better, fuller for it. Thank you for your many contributions that have made the America we know today.

She didn't do anything for black people. She was a symbol because of the amazing music she made, but please, it was MLK and his troops who were getting their butts kicked by the southern crackers. She's talented, she's a legend, but she's also a prima donna, and she clearly has an eating disorder. I heard the rumors about Glynn, but didn't realize it was The Mental Health Guy he was caught in bed with. It was about this time her weight got really out of control.